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cheers.

if there's any bloody justice in the world.

Deservedly so of course.

It would be nice if a lot more people could appreciate that kind of music, but not gonna happen.

Quite suprising how few people have heard of them given they've sold out venues like the Roundhouse in the past.

I was aware they existed for about 5 years before I actually saw them live and became a fan.

Martini Henry Riffles.

kozelek

they're just depressingly awesome, knock out an album a year, no sign of slowing down

spends ten years in RHP playing awesome indie music when indie is in, then another ten years playing awesome acoustic led music when folky stuff comes in. And still he's not that well known!

And Joanna Newsom is pushing it...

pleased to meet you.

Very influential band, who barely put a foot wrong. Their sound was ahead of their time.

Newsom filled the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Which doesn't feel very obscure to me.

and i really can't understand why they're not bigger

Then I think the obvious answer is Joanna Newsom.

There are plenty of other talented, under-appreciated people, but I think there is every chance that Ys and Have one on me will be judged up there with Cohen, Dylan, Blue-era Joni Mitchell etc as singular feats of songwriting.

Stuff is no longer more or less well-known than other stuff?

I think a lot of these acts are gonna stay fairly close to their current levels of success/esteem.

Low? Exactly how big and critically slavered over do you think they're gonna get?

I'm talking about a point in the future where people say "I can't BELIEVE you saw Band X in Venue Y!!!!!" in reference to the current state of play.

I totally agree about Joanna being an all-time great but I kind of feel like we're at the point where anybody who isn't a dingbat already knows she is.

over ten years. Sharon Van who?

His debut album will be getting BBC4 esque documentaries as a classic album of it's time.

It's why I'd never even bothered to youtube them until I saw the respect they got here.

Maybe of Montreal, Future of the Left, Smog, the Wrens, Cat Power, Patrick Wolf, Jeff Lewis, Bat for Lashes, Warpaint, Wild Beasts.
Probably none of the above. It’s especially hard to spot a timeless artist as those kind of types are necessarily something other than ‘relevant’. Hence all ^those^ already being fairly established as known entities of cultness/whatever.

He's been making pretty interesting stuff for years.

Of course, he is known as a former member of one of the world's biggest bands, with his guitar work heralded therein.

I mean as an artist in his own right.

I've always thought he was too weird for the mainstream but his background has made him to mainstream for others who won't listen because he was in RHCP.

Los Campesinos?
Craine?

/Destroyer

Knew they'd be one of the first five anawers

so, so sad how bland that band turned out to be :(

than it does to go to Arab Strap's (Afternoon) Soaps video (to give one example)

That's not to say that they have the same cultural significance as one another or the same popularity but accessing the past in the age of the internet means that something is either there or it isn't - a search engine will never take 3 months to find something and report back that it was an almost impossible task

obscurity is thus obsolete

But I think we’re talking ‘obscure’ in the sense of music that, for one reason or another, is less likely to be searched for in the first place.

Jonathan Fire*Eater, on account of being a proto-Strokes.

Cay, on account of being the lost band that never really was, and can never reform.

it's bizarre, he should be a cult icon, every record he releases should be an 'event', but his records hardly get any attention, or at least nowhere near what they deserve. I didn't see Apocalypse in any end of year lists last year, despite it being amazing.

I think his last two albums have been the strongest of his career, but they'll never get the acclaim that Smog albums do because they don't have a clear aesthetic in the same way.

and not like anything else I've ever heard

although 'dolphin' and 'choade' tower over the rest imo, that's the secrets-of-the-universe shit right there

obscurity is more overwhelming than ever before, since any band is competing with all of history's other bands.

not above the level they reach in their time.

A fantastic body of work. Probably didn't do himself any favours with changing the name of his band as well as collaborations and solo albums. A tragic tale, a masterpiece to his name ('The Magnolia Electric Co.') I've never met anyone who has heard it who doesn't think that albums great, even my AFI/Marilyn Manson fan ex girlfriend from 6 years ago. I'd love him to get better, and have another shot.

his last few albums have been shockers though.

will be/are canonised but not obscure obscure though.

Xiu Xiu? Gang Gang Dance? Burial's there already. Titus Andronicus? Liars? St Vincent?

if so, Pollard.

didn't you read 'Retromania'?!?!1!!one

because the INTERNET and everything at your fingertips.

Do You Like Rock Music charted at #10 in the UK and #5 in the US, and they've had numerous Top 40 singles. I'm by no means saying they're massive, but for a while they were pretty well known.

since Waterpistol.

but I'd have to say Luke Haines, especially his solo stuff. He'll be well admired after his death.

there's a lot going on in those there songs

Simply cannot believe a band with so much class & so many great songs were allowed to remain in obscurity. I hope at some point in the next 50 years they will be rediscovered & people will be baffled that they never played arenas.

Wonderful band, but can totally see why they haven't broken into the mainstream

so yeah.

In 20 years I To Sky will be held in the same breath as Kid A

of fast rising but low selling stuff

but they're like one of the absolute champion bands. it hurts me that people are stupid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGqOWRMeWFc

Not heard Cay.

It was like they deliberately aimed at being the humdrum dadrock band their detractors always thought they were.

God to have been there!

Of all the suggestions in the thread you coulda chosen to be so very unequivocal about...

ISAD al0ne should mean he is ranked as one 0f the m0st incredible s0ng writers ever.

maybe not an All Time Great but his songs are catchy and easy enough to listen to that he should probably be more popular (outside of Sweden) than he is.

I mean if Biffy Clyro can get massive they should have been able to. Esp since they were prob more accessable than early Biffy.

Here's Tom... is a brilliant album. Its a little more laid back and melodic than their other stuff but has some gorgeous songs on it. Listen to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThEO7V10JbI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlNiSAoU-hE

in the future I reckon his songwriting will be seen to be head and shoulders above that of all the other artists who inhabit that 'indietracks' sort of world.

In Canada they’re less well-known than, say, The xx - let alone R.E.M or the Pixies or something.

I heard low's just like christmas in my local poundland on saturday. They probably crop up in really mainstream magazines like q and uncut, probably make it into a fair few best of lists each year they have an album, and are probably the most well known acti in their sub genre. The average person on the street may not have heard of them but they probably wouldnt have heard of the all time great film makers, painters etc either.

I dont think many of the bands mentioned can really count as obscure as they are well regarded and successful in their area, I think to be really obscure they would have to be realitively unknown even amongst people into that kind of thing

I dont think anyone will be recognised as all time greats in the future, so much easier to hear more artists now, and vastly diminished importance and influence of music crticim, or atleast alot more sources so it, loads of acts will be very well regarded in their niches but I don't think there will be acts that make it huge and still have enough critical aclaim to reach all time great status. I reckon the last band that achieved it were radiohead and they are from well before the internet era

might save time to just lose it

think its the only one bar 'the black ram' thats more than decent from his last five or six.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhqB_4b7HVQ

They aren't well known outside of the UK so perhaps one day they'll be recognized worldwide

Here's Tom is my favourite Shack album, in fact it's my favourite album by anyone so far this century. Every song a killer. Really can't see how it can be described as dadrock, unless the likes of Love, Burt Bacharach & Nick Drake are dadrock acts.

he means Trail of Dead sound like a loose The The.

http://www.factmag.com/2012/12/04/stream-facts-3-reissue-of-2012-ruff-sqwads-white-label-classics-in-full/

The quicker decent bands split or die the easier it is to class them as all-time greats.

probably a bunch of drum & bass stuff
aphrodite & moving shadow stuff will be rediscovered by a future generation I'm sure and people will marvel at their skills will a sampler, a pc world desktop & windows '95

The Feeling

the answer to this thread is Mark Eitzel.

would be more accurate
thre are lots of people that dont post on dis that are fully aware of all of these bands

not to thingsthatfly
i agree with ttf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkVSe9DubE8

http://youtu.be/gSj92M0N65M

there, i said it

Doesn't mean she won't also be recognised as being an all-time great.

although they get more recognition these days, felt still remain woefully under-appreciated.

Definitely one of the best contemporary groups around

Top 5

In light of today's news, I have spent the evening exploring much of Molina's work that I hadn't heard before. If I could 'this' the post again, I would.

Deerhoof, Jeffrey Lewis, R Stevie Moore

to repeat a few from above

Records like Moon Pix and What Would the Community think have a real timeless quality about them.
I remember seeing an interview with Matt Berninger where he said Cat Power's probably the most influential artist of his generation.

Codeine, The Mountain Goats, Sleater-Kinney, Titus Andronicus, Bo Ningen

On an already 'bigger' scale, hopefully Guided By Voices and Hot Chip

please

urp

Fucking amazing songwriter. Fantastic pop songs about the most morbid and horrible of subjects. He was a genius.

you mean The Long Tail?

looks like she might concentrate more and more on her solo material, and what she's put out so far is very special. she has this sweet distinctive voice that isn't too divisive and she has bags of attitude. She could go places.

Phil Elverum

I will consider my life wasted.

No joke.

This is literally the saddest submission I've seen since Cronin revived a Sparklehorse thread after Mark Linkous' death.

Titus Andronicus are one of the best bands I've ever heard, and they put on an unfuckwithable show. It is absolute bullshit that they aren't playing sold-out shows in upper-midsized venues everywhere.
(I would say "sold-out shows in arenas" but they do not fit there)

in terms of how much of a lasting influence they had compared to their contemporary impact. Trying to pick out modern equivalents is pretty much blind guess work though so I'll shut up.